9. How To Delegate (When It Feels Like It’s Faster To Do It Yourself)
I looked up “how to delegate” on Google, and it came up with literally 177 million results. No wonder lots of newly-promoted leaders are confused about how to delegate. There’s no one right way to do it, but there’s one simple process I’ve used for myself and my clients to help with delegation, and I’m walking you through it in this episode.
If you’re thinking that it’s faster and better to do things yourself, that you’re the only one who knows how to do it, and that your team is already busy enough without you giving them more work, you need to tune in this week. While things might get done better and faster initially, you’re going to end up as the exhausted leader of a demotivated team.
Your expertise has gotten you where you are, but now that you’re the leader you need to adjust accordingly. I’m sharing how to delegate in a way that allows your team to perform at the highest level, leaving you more time and energy to do your job of leading and helping your team develop the skills they need.
Until January 30th, you can book a one-time 90-minute deep dive with me to uncover what makes you unique as a leader, and give you a personalized roadmap tailored to your strengths and needs, so you can fully focus on your leadership goals. Click here for all the details!
What You’ll Learn From This Episode:
What holds so many new leaders back when it comes to delegation.
Why it’s so important to learn not to play the whole game by yourself, and how to pass the ball to your teammates.
The skillset - and most importantly the mindset - required to start delegating as a new leader.
Why, despite what you think, you do not have to do it all.
My step-by-step process for effectively delegating as a new leader, knowing that everything will get done.
Listen to the Full Episode:
Featured on the Show:
Book a one-time 90-minute deep dive with me to uncover what makes you unique as a leader.
To thank you for being a listener and supporter of The Confident Female Leader, I am sharing a free guided meditation with you! Download your meditation here.
Full Episode Transcript:
So, I looked up how to delegate on Google, and I came up with, get this, 177 million results. No wonder lots of newly promoted leaders are confused about how to delegate, there's no one right way to do this. I'm going to take you through a simple process, that I've used for myself and my clients, today. Feel free to experiment with it, and let me know how it goes.
Welcome to The Confident Female Leader podcast. A space for ambitious women stepping into leadership, who are ready to take control of their circumstances and own their magic. If you're ready to start shedding your self-doubt, come into your new identity as a leader, and stop consistently undervaluing yourself so you can feel more confident in your role, this show’s for you.
I'm Annie Framand; Psychologist, Certified Feminist Coach and Master Trainer. And I'm on a mission to help women just like you stop overworking, overthinking, and overpleasing, so you can start creating success on your terms. Ready to create your dream life? Let's go.
Hola amigas, how are you? I am so good. I just saw my love play basketball, in a league he joined here, in Mexico. And, he is such a team player. He passed the ball. He was setting other people up in his team for success, so they could shoot and score. Now, as I was watching him, it occurred to me that when an expert is promoted into leadership, especially when she was an expert in her previous role, she often does it all.
Because that's what was asked of her before, and that's how she knows how to “score”. She dribbles all the way to the basket by herself, and she scores; over and over again. So, she ends up exhausted at the end of the game. And the other players in her team are demotivated, because they have nothing to do. They also don't get better. Because even though they're on the court with her, it's like they're basically sitting on the bench watching.
So, today, I'm going to be talking about a topic that is near and dear to my heart, which is delegation. This is one, that every single one of my clients struggled with. And so did I, at the beginning of my leadership career. We're going to look at how not to play the whole game by yourself; when and how to pass the ball to your teammates.
So, I looked up how to delegate, in Google, and I came up with 177 million results; there's no one right way to do this. Okay? I'm going to suggest a simple process that I use, for myself and my clients. And what you want to do, is just experiment with it and take what fits. The point of this is to make your life easier.
First, we're going to look at what holds most of my clients back from delegating. And then, I'm going to take you through a simple process. We're going to layer on the skill set to the mindset. Because if we don't address the reasons you don't delegate first, then, even though I show you the simplest, easiest process, you just won't do it.
So, the first thing is mindset. Now, these are the thoughts I hear the most often from my clients, which prevent them from delegating as often as they could. Things like: It will be faster if I do it myself. I can do it better than anyone else. I'm the only one who knows how to do this. My team already has enough on their plate. I don't have time to show anyone how to do it. Or, I really like doing this.
I mean, sure, it might be faster if you took all the shots, and you might be better, initially. But you're gonna end up exhausted, like the star basketball player, and your team is going to be demotivated. So far, your expertise has gotten you where you are. But your role now, as a leader, is not to score all the points anymore, it's leading the team.
You're going to be picking the best players for each position, ensuring they work well together, and communicate effectively with each other, so that they know who's taking the ball and when. You're gonna want to motivate them to keep going when it's a tough game, or when they've had a few losses in a row. And, you're going to want to celebrate their wins.
If you're doing it all yourself, if you're doing all of the expertise and all the tasks, that's going to use up a lot of bandwidth. Leaving you little time to actually do your job, which is to lead the people who have the expertise, not providing it yourself. And if they don't have the expertise, then your role is to teach and coach them to develop the skills they need and to learn how to do it, so that you're not the only one who knows how to do the thing anymore.
Now, of course, if you're a working leader like I was, there are still some parts of the job that you're doing yourself. If you're a lawyer or a doctor, for example, you might still have some clients or patients. If you're in sales, you might still have certain deals that you handle. Sure, you get to keep some of the things that you're uniquely qualified for and that you really like. Also, part of your role is to groom your people, so that they can learn how to do that, too, eventually.
The first thing I did when I got promoted, was hire my future successor and get him ready to take on, eventually. And he did that; he took over four years later. Now, you don't want to overwhelm your employees; I get it, neither did I. Part of your role is to decide what stays on your plate and what doesn't. You get to choose, and you get to review their tasks with them.
Alright, second thing we're going to look at, is the skill set. So, now that we've looked at the main mindset blocks, we're going to look at this simple model that I use to decide if you first; do the thing, ditch the thing, delegate the thing, or delay the thing. That's it. Okay? Those are the four things we're going to look at.
Basically, it’s like going through your closet for spring cleaning. You put all your clothes on the bed. Then, one by one, you either put them each back in your closet “do”, or dump them in a garbage bag “ditch”, or donate it “delegate”. Of course, it's going to be a combination of all of the things, right?
And I get it, it's not easy at first. Especially if you haven't done this exercise in a few years, and you just keep piling the clothes into your drawers and closets, so you end up with different sizes and styles. And now, you just keep wearing your few favorites. You know, the stuff that you know for sure fits, because you don't have time to look underneath the pile, am I right?
So, what you might want to do for the stuff you're not sure about, is put it in a separate pile, which is called “delay”, so you just get it out of your sight. Now, you'll want to keep some room in your closet for the new additions, or tasks, that you eventually buy. Alright?
I went through this exact process two years ago, when I just started my coaching practice. I looked into my wardrobe, and I realized that I mostly had black and white clothes in there. And that I still looked really corporate, even though I had left that world to work for myself. So, I hired a style coach to revamp my wardrobe and make it feel more like the current version of who I was.
I put some stuff back in my closet. I threw some old stuff away. And I gave the rest, except for a bag that I kept underneath my bed. It was my, ‘I haven't worn it for a while, but I might want to do it eventually. So, I'm going to hang on to it’ pile. And, guess what? I only ended up going in that bag once or twice, about six months later, so I gave it away.
One by one, I bought new pieces of clothes that I never would have thought of buying just a few years ago. But now, they feel like my second skin. When I look in my closet, I see lots and lots of colors and patterns. And funny, when I met my love, he actually told me that one of the things he liked about me was how colorful I am, inside and out.
When I lived in Canada, I went through my closet about four times a year; once at the beginning of every season. And here, in Mexico, there's only two seasons; dry season and rainy season. So, I repeat this process twice a year now.
Okay, so how does this apply to delegation? Well, before you know what you want to delegate, and to who, you need to know what actually needs to get done, in-line with the priorities, and what you're keeping for yourself. Now, I personally use Trello as my to-do list. It's an app. It's really visual, which I like. And, you can sort it by date and project.
Also, it's really neat because you can share some of your tasks. So, if you don't already have a system that you'd like to use, you can experiment with that one. The actual system itself doesn't really matter, to be honest. Just use something that you actually like working with.
The first step that you want to do, is review your tasks and decide what you will do. For this, I want to introduce the concept of rechoosing, on purpose. So, you're going to want to look at everything. And yes, I mean everything, on your to-do list. Look at your meetings, your work tasks, or projects, all of it. Then, throw in tasks you do outside of work, your personal stuff. Put it all on the table, or on the bed.
Like we saw in Episode 2, as women, we're taught that our value comes from what we accomplish. So, we tend to do more at work and at home. Now, I want you to question all of it, instead of assuming that you have to do it all. Because when you think, “I don't have a choice, I have to get this project done by this date. I have to get this report in to my boss by Friday,” for example, you tend to overwork and you get resentful.
Now, there's a reason that you do that. You've been socialized, as a woman, to think that you have to do it all. But if you're listening to this, I know that doesn't work for you anymore. And you don't want to hustle and do all the patriarchy’s bidding, you want another way.
So, you're going to take all the clothes from your closet, and you're going to put them all on the bed. You're going to rechoose which clothes you're putting back in the closet, one by one. You get to decide what you do. Now, this is really the most important step. You're gonna want to ask yourself; what are your strengths? What are you uniquely qualified for? And, what is your part of your role as a leader?
If you're not sure, you'll want to chat with your boss about it, to make sure you're aligned. And so, when you think, “This project is in-line with my team's priorities, and my own. Therefore, I decide to do it by this date,” it goes in the closet. As for the report, when you think about it, you realize your boss never actually has the time to go over the data, and you just do it because your predecessor did it. Now, that's something you're going to want to ditch.
So, moving on to step two. Let's be real, that dress from 1995 doesn't fit you anymore and it will never come back in style, like that report. Now, a few questions to ask yourself before you ditch; is this task, the best use of my time? Is it in-line with the priorities? Is it part of my role? And, is it in-line with company's values?
You might want to add some questions to this, but those are just the basic ones. Now, if the answer to all those questions is ‘yes’, then you do it; it goes in the closet. If it's not the best use of your time, and/or it's not part of your role, but it's in-line with the priorities and the company's values, then you delegate. More on that later. If it's a ‘no’ to those questions, then greenlight to ditch it.
When it's something your boss has asked you to do, you're going to want to, of course, have a chat with them. Now, you're going to use those questions as a guide to inform that discussion.
All right, now on to delegating. If you have some tasks on your to-do, from your old job that you got promoted from, that are no longer part of your current role, you're going to want to delegate them. Once you've decided that they're tasks that need to get done, because they're in-line with the priorities and the values.
Now, the fun part, is you get to delegate the stuff that is not part of your role, that you're not great at. I'm not the best with details, and I'm not a great project manager. So, I work with people who help me with that, for example.
First, you're going to want to assess the strengths of the people in your team; expertise and otherwise. I like to use something called the StrengthsFinder from Gallup for this. You can use whatever you want. It could be your own assessment from knowing them. It could be their self-assessment. It could be from observation, a 360, whatever you want to use for that.
You're going to want to assess also, who is ready to take on the task that you have to assign. Who has the time? You want to be mindful about who has the time, because they’re all, probably, going to tell you they don't. And so, it's up to you to make that assessment, as well. And also, who could use some coaching? Who could use some coaching on how to do the task? But also, who could use some coaching on how, maybe, to be more efficient with the things that they already have on their plate.
And then, the last step you're going to want to take, is maybe delay, right? So, if the task is not on the priority list, but you're not ready to let it go, maybe you're gonna want to keep it for now. Okay? And so, you might reassess that in a few weeks or a few months, just to see if you want to do it, if you want to delegate it, or if you want to ditch it.
Okay, so those are some of the things that I have for you today, in terms of delegation. I would absolutely love to hear from you, to see what you love about the podcast, and also, what you would love for me to talk about next. Have a great week, everyone.
Now that you've dreamt up your goals for the year, if you'd like some support to make them come true, or if you'd like some help to apply any of the skills that you're learning on the podcast, I have a special offer to help you kickstart your year and create some traction towards your goals.
Now, normally the only way to work with me is in my three-month coaching container, but until January 30th of this year, you can also have a one-time 90-minute deep dive with me. Now, at the end of the 90 minutes, you'll have uncovered what makes you unique as a leader, and you'll have a personalized roadmap tailored to your strengths, so that you can focus on the goals that you want to achieve.
Book your free consult on my website at annieframand.com/getstarted to learn more and see if we're a good fit.
Thanks for listening to The Confident Female Leader podcast. Ready to dismantle the patriarchy with me? Come say “Hi” at annieframand.com to learn more about how you can take this work deeper and apply what you're learning.
Welcome to The Confident Female Leader podcast. A space for ambitious women stepping into leadership, who are ready to take control of their circumstances and own their magic. If you're ready to start shedding your self-doubt, come into your new identity as a leader, and stop consistently undervaluing yourself so you can feel more confident in your role, this show’s for you.
I'm Annie Framand; Psychologist, Certified Feminist Coach and Master Trainer. And I'm on a mission to help women just like you stop overworking, overthinking, and overpleasing, so you can start creating success on your terms. Ready to create your dream life? Let's go.
Hola amigas, how are you? I am so good. I just saw my love play basketball, in a league he joined here, in Mexico. And, he is such a team player. He passed the ball. He was setting other people up in his team for success, so they could shoot and score. Now, as I was watching him, it occurred to me that when an expert is promoted into leadership, especially when she was an expert in her previous role, she often does it all.
Because that's what was asked of her before, and that's how she knows how to “score”. She dribbles all the way to the basket by herself, and she scores; over and over again. So, she ends up exhausted at the end of the game. And the other players in her team are demotivated, because they have nothing to do. They also don't get better. Because even though they're on the court with her, it's like they're basically sitting on the bench watching.
So, today, I'm going to be talking about a topic that is near and dear to my heart, which is delegation. This is one, that every single one of my clients struggled with. And so did I, at the beginning of my leadership career. We're going to look at how not to play the whole game by yourself; when and how to pass the ball to your teammates.
So, I looked up how to delegate, in Google, and I came up with 177 million results; there's no one right way to do this. Okay? I'm going to suggest a simple process that I use, for myself and my clients. And what you want to do, is just experiment with it and take what fits. The point of this is to make your life easier.
First, we're going to look at what holds most of my clients back from delegating. And then, I'm going to take you through a simple process. We're going to layer on the skill set to the mindset. Because if we don't address the reasons you don't delegate first, then, even though I show you the simplest, easiest process, you just won't do it.
So, the first thing is mindset. Now, these are the thoughts I hear the most often from my clients, which prevent them from delegating as often as they could. Things like: It will be faster if I do it myself. I can do it better than anyone else. I'm the only one who knows how to do this. My team already has enough on their plate. I don't have time to show anyone how to do it. Or, I really like doing this.
I mean, sure, it might be faster if you took all the shots, and you might be better, initially. But you're gonna end up exhausted, like the star basketball player, and your team is going to be demotivated. So far, your expertise has gotten you where you are. But your role now, as a leader, is not to score all the points anymore, it's leading the team.
You're going to be picking the best players for each position, ensuring they work well together, and communicate effectively with each other, so that they know who's taking the ball and when. You're gonna want to motivate them to keep going when it's a tough game, or when they've had a few losses in a row. And, you're going to want to celebrate their wins.
If you're doing it all yourself, if you're doing all of the expertise and all the tasks, that's going to use up a lot of bandwidth. Leaving you little time to actually do your job, which is to lead the people who have the expertise, not providing it yourself. And if they don't have the expertise, then your role is to teach and coach them to develop the skills they need and to learn how to do it, so that you're not the only one who knows how to do the thing anymore.
Now, of course, if you're a working leader like I was, there are still some parts of the job that you're doing yourself. If you're a lawyer or a doctor, for example, you might still have some clients or patients. If you're in sales, you might still have certain deals that you handle. Sure, you get to keep some of the things that you're uniquely qualified for and that you really like. Also, part of your role is to groom your people, so that they can learn how to do that, too, eventually.
The first thing I did when I got promoted, was hire my future successor and get him ready to take on, eventually. And he did that; he took over four years later. Now, you don't want to overwhelm your employees; I get it, neither did I. Part of your role is to decide what stays on your plate and what doesn't. You get to choose, and you get to review their tasks with them.
Alright, second thing we're going to look at, is the skill set. So, now that we've looked at the main mindset blocks, we're going to look at this simple model that I use to decide if you first; do the thing, ditch the thing, delegate the thing, or delay the thing. That's it. Okay? Those are the four things we're going to look at.
Basically, it’s like going through your closet for spring cleaning. You put all your clothes on the bed. Then, one by one, you either put them each back in your closet “do”, or dump them in a garbage bag “ditch”, or donate it “delegate”. Of course, it's going to be a combination of all of the things, right?
And I get it, it's not easy at first. Especially if you haven't done this exercise in a few years, and you just keep piling the clothes into your drawers and closets, so you end up with different sizes and styles. And now, you just keep wearing your few favorites. You know, the stuff that you know for sure fits, because you don't have time to look underneath the pile, am I right?
So, what you might want to do for the stuff you're not sure about, is put it in a separate pile, which is called “delay”, so you just get it out of your sight. Now, you'll want to keep some room in your closet for the new additions, or tasks, that you eventually buy. Alright?
I went through this exact process two years ago, when I just started my coaching practice. I looked into my wardrobe, and I realized that I mostly had black and white clothes in there. And that I still looked really corporate, even though I had left that world to work for myself. So, I hired a style coach to revamp my wardrobe and make it feel more like the current version of who I was.
I put some stuff back in my closet. I threw some old stuff away. And I gave the rest, except for a bag that I kept underneath my bed. It was my, ‘I haven't worn it for a while, but I might want to do it eventually. So, I'm going to hang on to it’ pile. And, guess what? I only ended up going in that bag once or twice, about six months later, so I gave it away.
One by one, I bought new pieces of clothes that I never would have thought of buying just a few years ago. But now, they feel like my second skin. When I look in my closet, I see lots and lots of colors and patterns. And funny, when I met my love, he actually told me that one of the things he liked about me was how colorful I am, inside and out.
When I lived in Canada, I went through my closet about four times a year; once at the beginning of every season. And here, in Mexico, there's only two seasons; dry season and rainy season. So, I repeat this process twice a year now.
Okay, so how does this apply to delegation? Well, before you know what you want to delegate, and to who, you need to know what actually needs to get done, in-line with the priorities, and what you're keeping for yourself. Now, I personally use Trello as my to-do list. It's an app. It's really visual, which I like. And, you can sort it by date and project.
Also, it's really neat because you can share some of your tasks. So, if you don't already have a system that you'd like to use, you can experiment with that one. The actual system itself doesn't really matter, to be honest. Just use something that you actually like working with.
The first step that you want to do, is review your tasks and decide what you will do. For this, I want to introduce the concept of rechoosing, on purpose. So, you're going to want to look at everything. And yes, I mean everything, on your to-do list. Look at your meetings, your work tasks, or projects, all of it. Then, throw in tasks you do outside of work, your personal stuff. Put it all on the table, or on the bed.
Like we saw in Episode 2, as women, we're taught that our value comes from what we accomplish. So, we tend to do more at work and at home. Now, I want you to question all of it, instead of assuming that you have to do it all. Because when you think, “I don't have a choice, I have to get this project done by this date. I have to get this report in to my boss by Friday,” for example, you tend to overwork and you get resentful.
Now, there's a reason that you do that. You've been socialized, as a woman, to think that you have to do it all. But if you're listening to this, I know that doesn't work for you anymore. And you don't want to hustle and do all the patriarchy’s bidding, you want another way.
So, you're going to take all the clothes from your closet, and you're going to put them all on the bed. You're going to rechoose which clothes you're putting back in the closet, one by one. You get to decide what you do. Now, this is really the most important step. You're gonna want to ask yourself; what are your strengths? What are you uniquely qualified for? And, what is your part of your role as a leader?
If you're not sure, you'll want to chat with your boss about it, to make sure you're aligned. And so, when you think, “This project is in-line with my team's priorities, and my own. Therefore, I decide to do it by this date,” it goes in the closet. As for the report, when you think about it, you realize your boss never actually has the time to go over the data, and you just do it because your predecessor did it. Now, that's something you're going to want to ditch.
So, moving on to step two. Let's be real, that dress from 1995 doesn't fit you anymore and it will never come back in style, like that report. Now, a few questions to ask yourself before you ditch; is this task, the best use of my time? Is it in-line with the priorities? Is it part of my role? And, is it in-line with company's values?
You might want to add some questions to this, but those are just the basic ones. Now, if the answer to all those questions is ‘yes’, then you do it; it goes in the closet. If it's not the best use of your time, and/or it's not part of your role, but it's in-line with the priorities and the company's values, then you delegate. More on that later. If it's a ‘no’ to those questions, then greenlight to ditch it.
When it's something your boss has asked you to do, you're going to want to, of course, have a chat with them. Now, you're going to use those questions as a guide to inform that discussion.
All right, now on to delegating. If you have some tasks on your to-do, from your old job that you got promoted from, that are no longer part of your current role, you're going to want to delegate them. Once you've decided that they're tasks that need to get done, because they're in-line with the priorities and the values.
Now, the fun part, is you get to delegate the stuff that is not part of your role, that you're not great at. I'm not the best with details, and I'm not a great project manager. So, I work with people who help me with that, for example.
First, you're going to want to assess the strengths of the people in your team; expertise and otherwise. I like to use something called the StrengthsFinder from Gallup for this. You can use whatever you want. It could be your own assessment from knowing them. It could be their self-assessment. It could be from observation, a 360, whatever you want to use for that.
You're going to want to assess also, who is ready to take on the task that you have to assign. Who has the time? You want to be mindful about who has the time, because they’re all, probably, going to tell you they don't. And so, it's up to you to make that assessment, as well. And also, who could use some coaching? Who could use some coaching on how to do the task? But also, who could use some coaching on how, maybe, to be more efficient with the things that they already have on their plate.
And then, the last step you're going to want to take, is maybe delay, right? So, if the task is not on the priority list, but you're not ready to let it go, maybe you're gonna want to keep it for now. Okay? And so, you might reassess that in a few weeks or a few months, just to see if you want to do it, if you want to delegate it, or if you want to ditch it.
Okay, so those are some of the things that I have for you today, in terms of delegation. I would absolutely love to hear from you, to see what you love about the podcast, and also, what you would love for me to talk about next. Have a great week, everyone.
Now that you've dreamt up your goals for the year, if you'd like some support to make them come true, or if you'd like some help to apply any of the skills that you're learning on the podcast, I have a special offer to help you kickstart your year and create some traction towards your goals.
Now, normally the only way to work with me is in my three-month coaching container, but until January 30th of this year, you can also have a one-time 90-minute deep dive with me. Now, at the end of the 90 minutes, you'll have uncovered what makes you unique as a leader, and you'll have a personalized roadmap tailored to your strengths, so that you can focus on the goals that you want to achieve.
Book your free consult on my website at annieframand.com/getstarted to learn more and see if we're a good fit.
Thanks for listening to The Confident Female Leader podcast. Ready to dismantle the patriarchy with me? Come say “Hi” at annieframand.com to learn more about how you can take this work deeper and apply what you're learning.
Enjoy the Show?
Don’t miss an episode, follow the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts.
